


Spare Parts

by Aaniat



Category: Peaky Blinders, Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-11-10 20:23:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11134086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaniat/pseuds/Aaniat
Summary: Thomas Shelby returned from the war broken into a thousand many pieces, only to break into a million more when he learns that the woman he had grown to love in its aftermath betrayed him. Was it possible to put him back together? Perhaps it was for someone exactly like him.Except, when is it ever as simple as that?





	1. Chapter 1

The smog filled sky of Birmingham did well to disguise its afternoon as evening, and the only way to tell the two apart was by observance of its residents. Afternoon turned into evening only when the many children and women out on the streets retreated into their homes and vacated the space for the men of the city, free from work, either on their way home or to a nearby pub. All of Birmingham's inhabitants were aware of this mechanism, so when Anna Jenkins strolled along the streets of Small Heath well into the night, it was not only an unusual sight but also gave away an important piece of information about her - she didn't belong. 

And truly, belong she did not. Striding across the pavement clad in a white shirt neatly tucked into a black skirt that ended slightly above her ankles, she gently - but intentionally - swayed her hips with every step she took, satisfied each time she felt the gun that she had tucked behind her waistband touch her skin. To protect her from the unforgiving weather of the city and to hide the bulge that her revolver created from underneath her clothes, she wore a black coat that ended right above the hemline of her skirt - and that is what she wore almost every day. Except no one in Birmingham would have known that since no one in Birmingham had seen her around long enough to notice it. After all, it was only her first night in the city. 

Every set of eyes that noticed her that night knew that she was an outlander, and nothing foreign in Birmingham - that too in Small Heath - went unnoticed by the kingpins of the city, The Peaky Blinders. Which is why when Anna walked through the doors of The Garrison, everyone inside the pub knew of her. They knew she didn't belong, and they knew that a woman in a pub at that of time night only meant two things: either she was a whore, or she was a woman of power by association, just like Polly and Ada Shelby. 

But who was she? That was a question the Shelby brothers waited patiently to know the answer to, sitting in their private room adjacent to the bar counter of the pub. Numerous men had come up to them and told them of the woman that had been roaming around Birmingham since early evening. Some even spoke of how she had broken the fingers of a man that had tried to manhandle her, and that piece of information that had amused a certain member of the Shelby family; not enough to get him to smile but enough to get him to huff and think about how he had imbeciles for men living in his city. 

The bells atop the door of the pub rang as it sprung open, allowing Anna to step inside. She noticed the abrupt yet subtle lowering of voices as the men inside took notice of her presence but dismissed their reaction, as if she was used to it - because she was. She walked towards the bar counter and smiled sweetly at the man standing on the opposite side, eyeing her cautiously. "Hello. Where can I find someone named Shelby?"

The man she had approached continued eyeing her, not sure of whether he should answer or not. He had heard rumours about her association with people of power, and they only seemed true upon her asking of the whereabouts of the Peaky Blinders. Surely, no ordinary person would want to meet with them. 

Eventually, the man pointed to the concealed roomed right next to the bar counter, it's door closed with a frosted glass situated inside its frame. Anna nodded towards the man, silently expressing her gratitude before walking towards the door of the room and knocking. Not waiting for a response, she turned the handle and swung it open, stepping inside to find three pairs of eyes glued onto her. 

The small room was in fact a private booth, with cushioned seating that ran along its edges and a large table placed right in the middle of it. Inside sat three men: one with a moustache and a thin nose, one who still looked like a boy but probably wasn't and in between both was the only one with the infamous Blinder flat cap still on, his blue eyes staring holes into Anna's being. 

Anna let the door shut behind her and stared back, appearing more relaxed than the three men were used to seeing before them. She noted how the men before her were taking their time to digest her presence and took it as an opportunity to speak. "I'm looking for someone, anyone, named Shelby. I was told they'd be here." 

The one with the moustache let out a laugh and slammed the glass of whiskey he had been sipping onto the table. "Someone? You found three of 'em. What d'ya want woman? Why're you here at this time of night?" 

Anna noticed how he spoke much louder than was required of him and mentally groaned; she despised noise. "That's fantastic," she nodded, staring at the table before her not because she was nervous or afraid, but because their was a dirty spot on it and it was putting her on edge. "that'll save me a lot of time. I thought I'd have to go through a couple of people before I got to speak with the boss himself. Which one of you is that, by the way?"

"It doesn't fucking matter," the younger looking one said, leaning forward and lightly slamming his fist onto the table, making Anna look up at him. "what the fuck d'ya want? We got more important matters to attend than the wailing of women." 

She let a small, knowing smile place itself on her lips as she looked at him and lightly chuckled. "Please don't pretend like you weren't awaiting my arrival, Mr. Shelby. I know it isn't every day a woman goes through the trouble and torment of walking down Small Heath at this time of night only to make your acquaintance. I know you've been excited." 

"London," the blue-eyed man in the middle finally spoke, his head hung low as he stared up at her, his index finger running around the rim of the glass on the table before him. "your accent - you're from London."

She stared back at him, narrowing her eyes slightly as she tried to read him. He looked as if he was the only sober one of the three, and also seemed much smarter considering he was the only who took the time out to study his subject and not rely on its own answers. Was he the boss? Seemed so. "You're correct, Mr. Shelby," Anna stepped forward and slid into the booth, sitting opposite where the three men were huddled together. "My name is Annabelle Jenkins. You might have heard of me, might have not-"

"You're JJ Jenkins's fucking daughter!" The man with the moustache, once again, spoke louder than necessary. "What the fuck are'ya doin' here? Your old man just bit the dust, I heard?"

"Arthur, I'm sure she was getting to it-" The younger looking man began as he laughed at 'Arthur's impulse, only to have Arthur cut him off too. 

"Shut ya fuckin' mouth John boy, you was still in ya' fuckin' diapers when I used to dream of meeting JJ fucking Jenkins. A fuckin' legend, that man. 'e was my only inspiration."

The man in-between 'Arthur' and 'John' let out a breath in exasperation, staring at Arthur long enough for him to understand and shut his mouth, before turning to look at Anna again. "Annabelle, I ask you this once and once only: why are you here?"

"To propose a deal," Anna leaned forward and smiled before settling her gaze onto the bottle of whiskey on the other side of the table. "May I?" 

"Please," the blue-eyed man gestured towards the bottle with his hand, signalling insistence due to which John poured the whiskey into a glass and pushed it towards her. 

Anna thanked the man and took a sip of her drink. "My father divided his empire into two before he passed, so my brother Kenny and I inherited equal parts. I wished no harm onto my brother but it seems he-" Anna paused to observe the three men before her, noticing how they were listening intently, before sighing. "You see, he wants my half of the inheritance too. Now I will not fucking give that to him, so naturally, he wants me dead. Everything was fine and manageable - even with him constantly trying to kill me - but recently, he-"

The blue eyed man cut her off, "He's joined hands with Sabini. You can't fend both off."

Anna nodded, lifting a corner of her mouth upwards. "Well, you're a darb, aren't you?." She continued after a pause: "Yeah. You know what you know."

The man nodded, staring at nothing particular as he lowered his gaze and tried putting two and two together. "So what do you want from us, Miss Jenkins?"

Arthur scoffed at how his brother addressed the woman: of course he would address her like that, she was JJ fucking Jenkins's daughter. 

"I need you," she started. "The Peaky Blinders, to get rid of Sabini and, consequently, get rid of my brother. I need protection. I've ordered my men to lay low for the time being because I do not want them to die at the hands of my brother and Sabini because of me. Kenny and Sabini's men combined outnumber mine greatly - it is not worth anything to fight them alone right now."

The man in the middle - who, Anna had by now guessed, was the boss - nodded once again. Silence took over the room for a few seconds as he seemed lost in thought, probably processing the information that had been given to him. John and Arthur looked as if they knew better than to disturb him and so also remained quiet. It was a while before he spoke: "And why do you expect us to help you?" 

Gulping down the entirety of her drink, she placed the glass back onto the table and shrugged nonchalantly, as if she expected the man to already know the answer. "It's quite simple, Mr. Shelby. You help me and Sabini's business is yours for the taking. Do whatever the fuck you want with his gambling stations in South London, take his money, take his clubs, keep them, I don't care. I will help you take them if you will help me in return. On top of which, I would assume that my party and the Peaky Blinders are to enjoy the benefits of mutual friendship long after this matter is taken care of. It's a win/win situation, Mr. Shelby."

"Tommy," John started, addressing the man in the middle. "Can you fucking imagine it? All of South London. The clubs, the gambling, the money. Epsom, Tommy!" 

Tommy nodded yet again, absorbing his brother's words as he appeared to think some more. "Yes John boy, I can. I can imagine it." Finally, he looked up to the woman seated opposite him and licked his lips, nodding one last time. "You have yourself a deal, Miss Jenkins."


	2. Chapter 2

“So Miss Jenkins,”

Anna raised her head from her glass of gin to look at the oldest Shelby brother sitting across from her. They were seated in the same booth that she’d met them first in, only John now sat relatively closer to her while Arthur and Tommy were right where they’d been the night before. Anna raised her eyebrow, urging him to go on.

“How do you want to go about this?”

“Hmm,” She clicked her fingers in a rhythmic motion onto the wooden table-top before turning one corner of her mouth upward, looking at Arthur - and, subsequently, Tommy as he sat next to him - through heavy lashes. “I think it’s wonderful what you boys did to Billy Kimber. Fucking magnificent. I’d say biblical, wouldn’t you John?”

John cast her a confused yet happy-at-the-mention-of-it sideways glance and nodded. “Fucking biblical indeed.”

Anna saw Tommy hold his frown, and she knew he was trying to figure out her purpose behind mentioning the events of the shootout between the Peaky Blinders and the Birmingham Boys that occurred less than a month ago. She chose to answer his silent question… partially, anyway. “It’s amazing how much you profited from it, yeah? I heard.” Tommy noticed the glint of mischief in her eyes and wasn’t sure if she spoke with innuendo or not. “Cheltenham? Worcester? They’re keeping the blue devils away, I presume?”

Tommy arched his eyebrow. “What’s yer point, Miss Jenkins?”

“I want to expand my business too, yeah?” She took a sip out of her glass, expecting the men to interject but carried on when they didn’t. “I’m looking for some possible amalgamations… mergers… take-overs.”

Tommy scoffed, casting a momentary glance towards his brothers. “We’re not up for sale, Miss Jen-“

“Oh no, no, no, Mister Shelby. I would never.” Anna cut him off and, once again, Tommy couldn’t tell the purpose behind the tone she spoke in. “I have something else in mind. I’ll need to travel for it though.”

“We offerin’ you protection, Miss. We’s had a deal.” Arthur finally spoke again, diverting everyone’s attention to him. “You leave, there’s no protection. No protection, no deal.”

She studied the man for a moment. She could tell that he was impulsive and not as quick-witted as his blue-eyed brother, but he seemed pure of intent. She appreciated him for that, and she appreciated him for he appreciated her father. “You lot could come with, yeah?” was all she said.

Tommy sighed, leaning forward. “We don’t have the time for day-trips and picnics, Miss Jenkins.”

Anna shifted her gaze to stare at him, the muscles around her eyes tensing as they visibly pushed back. She let out a breath and, feeling her temper get the best of her, wanted nothing more than to throw the glass in front of her at his head. She recognized the discrimination in his voice, laced with sexism and the simple belief that she wasn’t worth the effort to talk business with — because she was a woman, of course. The thought made her want to punch a wall. She wasn’t fragile; she had killed, she had hit and been hit, she had been trained and raised by her father to be the perfect, independent daughter who was no less than any man. That’s why she loved her father more than one could fathom, for he had never thought of her as a lesser individual because of her gender and had raised Anna and her brother with the same privileges and expectations. The only difference was that her brother grew up to be a cunt. Sometimes, it really was nature over nurture.

_Calm yourself, Anna. He’s like every other man. You should be used to it by now._

And she was used to it. She wasn’t going to lie to herself, she was extremely lucky to have been James Jenkins’s daughter, but it didn’t completely shield her from the chauvinistic, patriarchal ways of the world. She didn’t mind so much though — made it all the more funner to put a bullet through their heads. But she wasn’t going to do that to Tommy… not right now, anyway.

Tommy felt the holes she burned into his being as she stared at him with the most sickening gaze he’d seen any woman muster up. It was as if every muscle along her skull had contracted to evolve her face into its most intimidating form, which was a far cry from how relaxed and sweet she’d looked a minute ago. He briefly felt like he should look away, but a quick reminder to himself of his own stature made him hold her stare.

“Day-trips and fucking picnics, eh?” She was raised to speak with a proper English accent and so she did, always, but it never stopped her from making use of colourful vocabulary. “Do you think of me a prat, Mister Shelby?” Anna paused for a response but, upon receiving one, continued with a voice much louder and more stern than any she’d used previously in front of the men. “You are sitting in front of me doing business _with_ me, you fucking twat. So if you want to pass cock-up remarks about me and what I do, I’m going to smash this glass and maybe John’s glass here too onto your thick skull and walk out of here and we can call it a day.”

 

Two hours later, Anna sat in the back seat of her Chrysler with Arthur on the other side, the space between them empty as John had to tend to his kids. Tommy glowered in the passenger seat up front, puffing on his eighth cigarette of the thus-far ninety minute drive. Anna’s driver and trusted employee of her father — Carl Freymont — drove the car, having been stationed outside Anna’s newly-bought Birmingham townhouse as she’d gone about the city to find the Shelby brothers. Anna loved Carl like a second father. He’d been around for as long as her earliest memory of childhood dated, having even driven the cart her father had cradled her in as a baby to take around town for the first time. He was family to her and she respected him like she’d respected James, calling him ‘Sir Carl’ ever since she’d honored him as ‘Knight of the Buick’, Buick having been the first car her father had bought that promoted Carl from carriage steerer to automobile driver. After JJ Jenkins’s death, Carl had chosen to stay with Anna over Kenny.

The car came to a halt after another half an hour and Anna smiled, peering outside the window-less frame. She’d missed her city terribly, having been away for almost a month now. She was glad Birmingham was relatively closer to it, unlike the other cities she’d stationed herself in before it. “We’re here, Miss Jenkins.” She heard Carl speak, and saw him exit the vehicle to open her door.

She stepped out and smiled warmly at him, before turning to find Tommy Shelby at her side, nostrils flaring. “Why the fuck are we in Camden Town, Annabelle??”

Anna resisted the urge to chuckle and, instead, directed her smile towards him. She’d refused to give him the layout of her plan and who she wanted to visit when the brothers had agreed to accompany her which had infuriated Tommy but right now, in front of her, he looked like his head was going to explode. _‘You need to trust me, Mister Shelby, if you want this work,_ ’ she’d said and he’d agreed like a dimwit, and now they stood in front of Alfie Solomons’s fucking bakery with no men and barely any ammunition on them. They hadn’t even told anyone back in Birmingham where they were headed — granted, they didn’t know themselves — and it seemed like the Peaky Blinders were downright fucked because this woman was mad. Maybe Kenny Jenkins was right to want to eliminate his sister after all.

Not answering him, Anna turned to her driver. “Get yourself some lunch, Sir Carl. Go on now.”

Carl nodded and got back into the car, driving away. Arthur looked at his brother, the panic etched across his face worsening when Anna brushed past both of them and entered through the doors of the factory.

“I don’ like this, Tommy.” He cast a worried glance towards his brother. “The fuck are we doin’ ‘ere?”

Tommy inhaled deeply and stepped forward, poking Arthur’s chest with his index finger. “This was your fucking idea, you were the one who’d practically jumped to accompany her. Now you fuckin’ stick to it so we can get ourselves killed with some fuckin’ honour.”

Suddenly, Anna’s head popped back outside through the partially opened door she’d walked through a few seconds ago. “Are you fucking coming or not?”

Soon enough, the three of them were deep inside the confinements of the bakery, and Tommy realised that it was at-least thrice as large as it looked from outside. They rounded a corner and he eyed the barrels of alcohol that lay lined up on the floor of the large hall they’d just entered, considerably shadier than the rest of the place. Tommy was aware of Alfie Solomons’s illegal distillery. He knew he was a big boy, and he also knew that the Peaky Blinders — or any other potential threats to his business, including Anna — were not welcomed on his property. He noticed the perplexed looks he got from the workers and sighed; this was not good.

A tall boy approached them then, arching an eyebrow as his eyes scanned over them. Anna spoke up before he could: “I need to see Mister Solomons.”

The boy nodded, still arching his eyebrow at her. It seemed as if they were having a silent conversation, one that Tommy couldn’t decode. Nevertheless, he led them to a the back of the massive hall, where the walls were compartmentalised in the corner to hold what he guessed was Alfie’s office. A large wooden door awaited them next to a glass window they couldn’t see through because the curtains were not drawn.

The boy opened the door and walked in, holding it so it didn’t shut on the three as they followed suit; Anna first, then Tommy, then Arthur.

Alfie Solomons sat towards the back of the office, behind a large mahogany desk that was cluttered with papers, files, a telephone and a lamp. The room itself was quite large, filing cabinets encircling most of it as a large carpet was placed in the middle of the wooden floor, but nothing else on it.

Alfie looked up from the paper he had been writing on, small spectacles that connected to the chain around his neck situated upon his nose. He wore a crumpled, off-white shirt with a black waistcoat on it, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Raising his eyebrows at the sight in front of him, he took his glasses off to hang on his chest as he leaned back into his chair. After a few seconds of silence, Anna heard his raspy, deep voice say: “You have some fucking nerve to come here.”

“Well, shalom to you too,” Anna crossed her arms as she noticed his eye twitch, scanning her tall frame before moving to the two men behind her. She knew that he’d be able to deduce who they were given the flat caps they wore atop their heads and thus didn’t find any introductions necessary. Alfie Solomons was a smart man, probably one of the smartest that she was aware of and she couldn’t help but give him credit for it, no matter how much she didn’t want to.

“Give me on fucking reason I shouldn’t shoot you right now.” Alfie placed his arms on his desk and leaned forward, his intimidating words spoken in the friendliest of tones. That was Alfie’s forte — to make people shit their pants without doing as much as raising his voice. “One reason, yeah? Come on, come on. I want to hear it.”

“I am not here to waste my fucking time chin-wagging with you,” Annabelle started, making Tommy panic. _She really was here to get them all killed_. “Are you done with your questions?”

Alfie smiled, and it wasn’t the sort that asked ‘would you like some some biscuits with your tea?’. He opened a drawer under the right-side of his desk, calmly reaching into it without his smile ever faltering, before standing up and pointing a pistol at her. “Yeah, yeah. Of course. No questions then, I suppose.”

Tommy took a step forward, grabbing Anna’s forearm before he even realised what he was doing. All he knew was that he feared for his life, and his brother’s, and her’s — except, with the way things were going, it didn’t look like any of them would leave the bakery alive, even if they did manage to act quick and inflict harm upon Alfie Solomons.

Alfie looked at Tommy’s hand on Anna’s arm before returning his gaze back to meet hers. “What’s this, then?” He gestured to Tommy and his grip on her with his gun. “You finally lost the plot, eh Jenkins? This what it is, innit?”

Anna advanced forward, pulling her arm out of the Peaky Blinder’s hand as she did. She walked up to the Jewish man’s desk so she stood right in front of the the gun his outstretched hand held and scoffed. “Are you having a laugh? Get over it, Solomons, stop being a sad arse.”

“FUCK OFF,” Alfie slammed the gun onto his table, the resulting noise booming through the entire room and, probably, most of the distillery. He straightened up to look at the woman who had now arched an eyebrow at him, having not even flinched at his actions. In the meanwhile, Tommy and Arthur exchanged a look of confusion; what the fuck was going on? “Fuck off, Jenkins, yeah?” Alfie waved her off, his voice back to normal, as if he hadn’t just pointed a pistol at her and hadn’t banged said pistol onto his desk. “Go on, fuck off. I don’t wan’ see you.”

Anna cocked her head to the side and offered him a small smile. “Oh come on, you big sod. Are you sure you want me gone?”

Tommy furrowed his eyebrows at what Annabelle said. Had she actually said that? Did he hear correct? What sort of fucking circus was this?

“Yep.” Alfie turned his head and mustered up the most nonchalant answer that he could.

Anna arched her eyebrow and tilted her head, bending slightly so she could make the extra distance and appear in his line of sight. “Positive?”

“Yeah.”

“Right through that door?”

“Fuck off now.”

“I won’t come back.”

“Hmm.”

Annabelle sighed and straightened up, raising her hand to tuck a stray strand of her loosely tied hair behind her ear. She nodded to herself and took a slight step back, making to turn when she heard him speak. “No, no, you don’t get to do that.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, “Do what?”

He raised his gaze to look at her, gesturing loosely with his hands. “Make me feel like I’m dropping a fucking clanger again. You can’t do that. I won’t feel guilty. Fuck off, yeah?”

“Alfie,” She said his name with a slight chuckle. Anna couldn’t remember the last time she was so amused. “I’m not doing anything.”

“Yeah, yeah, you are. You do this thing. You always do this fuckin’ thing, you make me feel peevish and then I feel guilty about bein’ a fuckin’ slag and you never fuckin’ admit that you do it but you always fuckin’ do it.”

Anna resisted the urge to laugh. She knew what he was talking about, and she knew he was right but she’d never admit it. “Right then, tell me. What’s your fire about?”

“YOU FUCKIN’ KNOW WHAT IT’S ABOUT,” He shouted once more and she closed her eyes, pursing her lips. When she opened them a nanosecond later, he was back to his normal relaxed self. _How could he always do that?_ “Y’know what it’s about, you cheeky bugger, don’t play sly with me. So you can fuck off now. I won’t get in your way, ‘cause you obviously don’t like me there. Go on. Shoo.”

Anna scowled. “You sound wonkier than usual, mate.”

Tommy and Arthur continued watching the exchange before them, still confused. Were they friends? Was this the crazy sprog of their psychotic affection for one another being displayed before them?

Anna confirmed Tommy’s speculations with what she said next: “You don’t get to be prissy about this, Solomons. You came to my father’s funeral for an hour and then never took the time out of your rummy life. Don’t accuse me of not reaching out when you didn’t either.”

Silence took over them once more as Alfie stared blankly at Anna. Sighing, he nodded. “Y’know sweetheart, you’re right, you’re right. Let’s settle this like old times, yeah? Like old times.” He walked around his desk to reach Anna’s side, making her turn around to look at him. Tommy and Arthur could finally see the annoyed expression on her face. “Give me your gun.”

Anna rolled her eyes but did as he asked, reaching into the pocket on the inside of her overcoat to take the revolver out. She handed it to him and he set it upon his desk, before looking at her expectantly again.

She raised her eyebrow and huffed. “What?”

“And the dagger, sweetheart. Come on, come on.”

Anna scoffed and bent down, reaching up her skirt to detach the dagger from the bandelette around her thigh. Straightening, she tossed it onto the table.

Alfie nodded and walked to stand behind her, placing his hands on her coat. “Come on, easy up lass,” He took her coat off and threw it onto one of the two chairs on this side of the desk.

Anna turned to look at him as he did so. He pulled the chain attached to his glasses up and over his head before setting them on the desk too, his hair already free of the hat he usually wore when he went out. Taking a slight step back, he gestured with both his hands for her to come at him. “Come on love, you know how it goes. Take it out. I deserve it.”

Tommy furrowed his eyebrows, absolutely perplexed by what was going on. It was probably the most mind-boggling thing he’d ever seen, and he’d seen plenty. Anna arched an eyebrow before nodding, loosening up as she stretched her neck. She looked at him and sighed at the expectant look he was giving her. Complying, she pulled her arm back and, before the other men could even comprehend what was going in, punched Alfie square in the face.

Alfie inaudibly groaned, though his expression was as hard as a rock, and brought a hand up to clutch his nose. Anna didn’t look fragile but she was still a woman, and what she’d just done was the last thing expected from her gender. She loved the look of shock that would cascade over every man’s face when they’d realise she was actually capable of putting up a pretty decent fight - the look that she imagines the Shelby brothers had plastered onto their faces that very moment. In truth, her father had trained her to be this way. She’d been brought up to give utmost importance to her physical fitness, and was even assigned a boxing teacher to teach her and build up on her strength. JJ Jenkins had refused leave this world without his daughter knowing how to fend for herself, given especially after what had happened to his wife.

Alfie removed his hand and looked at his palm to notice a little splash of blood on it, making him inwardly grin. He could feel it trickle down the inside of his nose and around his nostril. Inhaling deeply through his aching nose, he gestured with his hand for her to continue. “Come on then, just a bit more.”

Anna grabbed him by the back of his head and pushed down, bringing her knee up simultaneously so it hit the side of his face. Grunting, Alfie straightened up, squinting his eyes at the woman in front of him. She smirked, making him scoff. “That feel good, don’it? Yeah? You feel fuckin’ better now?”

Anna grinned. “I do, actually.”

“Come on, then, darlin’.” Alfie nodded, his mouth threatening to to curve up into a smile. He didn’t smile often, it didn’t come naturally to him. “One more. Get to it.”

She nodded, shaking out her right hand to prep it. She reached her other hand towards his chin, held it in place and beamed. With the swiftest motion she could muster up, she flattened her right hand, stretched her arm outwards before slapping him as hard as she could, satisfied with the sound that rang through the room. Alfie’s face snapped to the other side as she did, making her grin widen. She was proud of herself and she knew he was too, which is why when he straightened his face to look at her again, she saw that the corner of his mouth had turned up in the slightest of manners. One would probably miss it if they weren’t consciously looking for it to appear, which Annabelle always was when it came to Alfie.

Alfie nodded and stepped forward to place an arm around her shoulders, turning her slightly as he looked down at her. It wasn’t exactly a hug, but it might as well be considered one coming from him. She grinned up at him. “Are you becoming soft, you wanker?”

Just as he was bout to retort, they heard a throat clear behind them and snapped their heads to find Tommy Shelby, Arthur Shelby and the boy Anna knew to be Olly still standing there, the former two looking confused out of their wits while the latter just looked pleased.

“The fuck you want?” Alfie walked forth towards Tommy Shelby, his glare intensifying to its usual depth. “What, then? Do we have a fucking problem?”

Tommy stared back at him, holding his gaze with Alfie’s maddened face mere inches before his. Tommy was not going to be bullied by Alfie Solomons, especially not when him and his brother seemed to be the only outlanders in the room. He was not a coward, and while he may not have been as big a gangster as Alfie Solomons yet, he had all the spirit to be it and more.

“Fuck off, Solomons.” Tommy heard Anna speak. “He’s with me. Keep your psychotic advances to yourself.” Alfie turned to look at the woman, raising his eyebrow. Before he could insult her for insulting him, she spoke words that made him ready to drop every other thing he was concerned with, everything that didn’t concern her. “I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe I'm updating this so late. I've been so busy, but I'm back at it with double the love for the Shelbies!  
> And, Alfie Solomons of course. Tom Hardy is my #1. He is my husband in every parallel universe that I imagine. And Alfie is such a powerful, fun and dynamic character. Tom has portrayed him SO well, like he does all his characters tbh, so he's going to have a huge role in this story.  
> Let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm obsessed with Peaky Blinders, and also on vacation from college so I thought I'd go back to writing for a bit. I will probably also update my other stories soon (I'm so sorry for leaving all my readers hanging, I feel awful.) 
> 
> Anyway, noticed that there are a lot of people in this fandom ready to read stuff by not so many who write so I thought I'd contribute. Please let me know what you think!!


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